Small and medium manufacturing businesses that don't put IT high up in their strategy decisions are scuppering their chances of success, according to a new study.
Researchers at Concordia University in Canada looked at IT performance at 44 manufacturing SMEs (those with between 10 and 299 employees) in France and found that …

Ah how true

Worked at one company where the CEO was attempting to drag them 'kicking and screaming' into the 1970's (this was early 90's but he was a realist). IT was VERY much controlled by the Finance director to the point where the change from dumb temrinals to desktop PCs cost rather more than it should since he would only authorise purchase of kit two weeks before scheduled install so the supplier was rubbing their hands with glee and charging full wack since he had no guarantees we would be buying any more.

Ludicrous end was when new arrivals in the finance department (the first to migrate oddly enough) were getting Pentium kit while the original staff had 486's.

well duh!

Im a one man band (plus an i.t. apprentice for sharpening the pencils and wiring cat6). We have our own internet servers, email, storage, backup, support, rolling plan, software rollout etc. All run by me. We also have bespoke apps for reporting, updating various internal procedures, all coded by me in .NET. There is *some* documentation but if I got run over by a bus then the company would be largely fooked in the medium term unless they got someone (most likely two or three people) with similar skills.

The plus side, i'm unlikely to go anywhere as this job rocks, the benefits are good and the company is good and profitable - plus I live within walking distance of home AND the kids school. Not needing transport is a fair few K per year alone. The free MCSD (newer .NET) *AND* MCSE (old win2k) is a bonus - the trust is two way.

One-man band

Unfortunately, the "one man band" idea is hard to do, as not many IT pros can pull it off. Specialization is too common nowadays. Optimally, such as at our org, a "two man band" works quite a bit better, even if just to push the paperwork off to the "director"-type and let the "IT guy" type run with the hands-on (such as you [Danny 14] it seems). The job does rock, but I'd suggest you either share all with your "IT Apprentice" pencil sharpener, or find a new pencil sharpener that can fill your role if you get hit by that bus of nuns. Based on your description, I'd assume you have ZERO in the way of a DR plan, as such a plan would include "what if the IT guy gets thrown under a bus." If your Apprentice is unable to fill your role even remotely, you should have better documentation so they can get someone who can.

Thinking you're the end-all-be-all in the IT department and leaving no chance for someone to fill your shoes is just bad IT.

Ah, so it was a good thing I got laid off at the old place,

Seeing as they did away with VP of IT position and now have the emaciated IT staff (50% cut when they laid me off) reporting not merely to the VP of Finance, but the VP of Marketing. I mean, if you understand bean counters, you CAN put together a plan they will approve. Marketing... best stop before I get banned.